The House might propose cutting as much as $80 million in state aid to Florida’s public universities, a plan that conflicts directly with the Senate’s top priorities heading into budget negotiations. | AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser

House leaders plan possible $80 million across-the-board cut to 'cash rich' state universities

TALLAHASSEE — The House might propose cutting as much as $80 million in state aid to Florida’s public universities, a plan that conflicts directly with the Senate’s top priorities heading into budget negotiations.

The House appropriations committee on Wednesday heard presentations outlining two scenarios of potential cuts, one deeper than the other, from members who oversee several different areas of the budget. Higher education budget writers were tasked with identifying $144.8 million and $304.8 million in potential reductions.

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The more extreme plan would include the $80 million across-the-board cut, in addition to reductions to a variety of other projects and funding sources. House leaders have not yet released a detailed breakdown of the cuts but described them in broad terms during the meeting.

Rep. Larry Ahern, a Seminole Republican who chairs the higher education appropriations subcommittee, said the cut would be distributed proportionately across the 12 institutions.

“While $80 million sounds like a large number, remember that the estimated expenditures for universities in the current year is $10.3 billion,” a figure that doesn’t including funding for medical schools, a University of Florida agriculture institute and an engineering school shared by Florida State University and Florida A&M University, he added.

Those additional appropriations “would increase the total funding under universities’ control to $11.5 billion," Ahern said, "so $80 million is seven-tenths of 1 percent."

During the presentation, Ahern said state funding to universities has grown almost 30 percent in recent years, while the overall state operating budget has grown 13 percent and the number of number of students attending the schools has grown less than 3 percent.

House appropriations committee chair Carlos Trujillo, a Miami Republican, said universities’ budgets are too big. During recent meetings, House committees scrutinized the schools’ spending on executive salaries, travel and foundations.

“If there is a system that has grown disproportionately to the rest of the state budget, it’s the State University System,” Trujillo told reporters after the meeting. “If there’s a system that is rich in cash, it’s the State University System. If there is a system that might not be fulfilling a lot of its core missions, … it’s the State University System. So it’s something that we’re definitely going to take into account as we craft our budget and as we address the necessities of the state.”

Trujillo said the House would likely be supportive of the Senate’s push to boost funding for student financial aid programs. But the lower chamber likely won’t increase general operating aid or funding that’s doled out based on performance.

“If there’s a place that is cash rich, is that money better suited for financial aid? Is that money better suited to end generational poverty through access to education?” he said. “I think that’s something that a lot of our members would be much more receptive to.”

The cuts members discussed on Wednesday are a “road map” for the House’s actual budget proposal, which leaders plan to roll out in the coming weeks, he said. The chamber wants to cut at least $1.4 billion overall to address impending shortfalls.

Senate President Joe Negron has made boosting the universities the chief priority of his two-year leadership term. His plans include funneling tens of millions to the institutions for hiring additional faculty and researchers and strengthening professional schools focusing on medicine, law and business. He also wants to significantly increase need- and merit-based aid and provide dollars and possibly bonds for improving facilities.

A spokeswoman for the Senate did not immediately return a request for comment.

When the House began discussing cuts to the universities last week, Negron said it was too soon to worry.

“I certainly don’t expect the House to adopt all of the Senate priorities this early in the process,” Negron said then. “I have to take one step at a time.”